Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. Will Change Name to Herc Rentals

Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation this week announced that it will become Herc Rentals upon its mid-2016 separation form Hertz Global Holdings.
Feb. 23, 2016
3 min read

Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation this week announced that it will become Herc Rentals upon its mid-2016 separation form Hertz Global Holdings. The business also has introduced a new brand mark that will be deployed in phases as part of a multi-year transition process. The new name and brand mark were unveiled at the American Rental Association’s The Rental Show 2016 in Atlanta.

“I am delighted to preview Herc Rentals as the future name for the business that 50 years ago became the first global equipment-rental firm,” said Larry Silber, president and CEO, HERC. “We remain committed to building upon Hertz Equipment Rental’s strong brand reputation, which is founded on outstanding customer service, operational excellence and unmatched product and industry expertise.

“We plan a smooth transition to be sure our customers and partners know they are working with the same organization they have entrusted with their equipment rental needs for five decades. At the same time, we are excited by the opportunity to introduce Herc Rentals as a business that is rapidly evolving, with much more to offer customers, employees and prospective shareholders as we look ahead. We are driving significant changes across the HERC organization to improve customer service, diversify our product mix, upgrade existing product lines, enter new markets, expand our footprint and make it easier to do business with us. We are truly becoming a new business and we look forward to demonstrating that, every day, we also are becoming a better business.

Silber added that the transition to Herc Rentals reflects the company’s intention to establish a unique identity as an independent company and to share the attributes of its forward-looking business and brand.

“Ultimately, we are a service business, helping our customers get the equipment, services and expertise they need to accomplish their tough jobs faster and more efficiently while enabling them to conserve capital for other growth investments,” Silber added. “Our people, our culture and our business are aligned to support that core mission.”

“Herc” is derived from the initial letters of Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation, the acronym from which has often been used interchangeably with “Hertz” as an informal name for the business and as a trademark.

The initial capital, lowercase and italic letterforms of the brand mark connect the business to its 50-year-old Hertz brand legacy.

While it will always be a core part of the business, eliminating the word “Equipment” from the name reflects Herc Rentals’ evolution as a comprehensive solutions provider across a broad range of customer and market segments, product categories, service and technology offerings, and technical and project expertise.

The yellow “contour” in the brand mark’s primary palette preserves the color association with the legacy brand and its gradually widening shape is designed to suggest the business’ ever-expanding potential.

Overall, the Herc Rentals brand mark signals the business’ ongoing transformation as a modern, innovative, technology-enabled and customer-focused B2B enterprise that’s ready to reimagine the role, impact and growth opportunities of the equipment rental industry, the company said. 

About the Author

Michael Roth

Editor

Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.

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